A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. [1] The black box is a relatively recent innovation in theatre. [1]
Black box theaters have their roots in the American avant-garde of the early 20th century. The black box theaters became popular and increasingly widespread in the 1960s as rehearsal spaces. [1] Almost any large room can be transformed into a "black box" with the aid of paint or curtains, making black box theaters an easily accessible option for theater artists. Storefronts, church basements, and old trolley barns were some examples of the earliest versions of spaces transformed into black box theaters. [2] Sets are simple and small and costs are lower, appealing to nonprofit and low-income artists or companies. [3] The black box is also considered by many to be a place where more "pure" theatre can be explored, with the most human and least technical elements in focus. [4]
The concept of a building designed for flexible staging techniques can be attributed to Swiss designer Adolphe Appia, circa 1921. The invention of such a stage instigated a half-century of innovations in the relationship between audience and performers. This idea would again be re-visited by Harley Granville Barker, using Appia's design as his basis. Barker would have ideas of directing productions in “a great white box,” which would see success in 1970. As time went on, black boxes were decided on instead as black provided the most neutral setting for productions. [2] Antonin Artaud also had ideas of a stage of this kind. The first flexible stage in America was located in the home living room of actor and manager Gilmor Brown in Pasadena, California. While the domestic decor meant that Brown's stage was not a proper black box, the idea was still a revolutionary one. This venue, and two subsequent permutations, are known as the Playbox Theatre, [5] and functioned as an experimental space for Brown's larger venue, the Pasadena Playhouse.
Such spaces are easily built and maintained. Black box theaters are usually home to plays or other performances requiring very basic technical arrangements, such as limited set construction. Common floor plans include thrust stage, modified thrust stage, and theater in the round.
Universities and other theater training programs employ the black box theater [6] because the space is versatile and easy to change. [7] The black backdrop can encourage the audience to focus on the actors, furthering the benefits. [8] Additionally, as the audience is now closer to the stage due to the lack of a proscenium, a more intimate atmosphere is able to be created. This intimate space may also serve to try and eliminate the implied mental distance between the audience and actors, while it still physically remains. [9] Many theater training programs will have both a large proscenium theater, as well as a black box theater. Not only does this allow two productions to be mounted simultaneously, but they can also have a large extravagant production in the main stage while having a small experimental show in the black box.
Black box spaces are also popular at fringe theater festivals; due to their simple design and equipment they can be used for many performances each day. This simplicity also means that a black box theater can be adapted from other spaces, such as hotel conference rooms. This is common at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where the larger venues will hire entire buildings and divide each room to be rented out to several theater companies. "The Black Box Theatre" in Oslo, Norway, [10] and the Alvina Krause Studio at Northwestern University [6] are theaters of this type.
Black box theaters have also been known to come with a handful of disadvantages. The open space may leave "too many" options that can leave many at a loss for direction or inspiration. Lighting issues arise as the primary lighting is typically above the performance area. During blackout scenes, the close proximity of the audience allows them to still see the transitions happening on stage. [11]
Black box spaces also see success within the music industry. These spaces are known to be used to host vocal and instrumental performances, rehearsals, shows, and competitions. [11]
Most older black boxes were built like television studios, with a low pipe grid overhead. Newer black boxes typically feature catwalks or tension grids, the latter combining the flexibility of the pipe grid with the accessibility of a catwalk. They were designed to be able to be spaces that can be molded into different settings easily for multiple performances. Black box theater's accommodate smaller audiences with the goal of having more intimate experiences. [11]
The interiors of most black box theatres are painted black, although that is not exclusive (a black box doesn't have to be black to be considered a black box, though black is most common). The absence of colour not only gives the audience a sense of "anyplace" [1] (and thus allows flexibility from play to play or from scene to scene), it also allows for an innovative lighting design to shine through. The architecture of black box theaters typically allow for easy modifications and decorations, but at the expense of time and monetary cost. [12]
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to theatre:
A proscenium is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same.
A theatre in the round, arena theatre, or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage.
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and theaters, and may be used for rehearsal, presentation, performing arts productions, or as a learning space.
Experimental theatre, inspired largely by Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu plays as a rejection of both the age in particular and, in general, the dominant ways of writing and producing plays. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream theatre world has adopted many forms that were once considered radical.
In theatre and performing arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance of productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the audience. As an architectural feature, the stage may consist of a platform or series of platforms. In some cases, these may be temporary or adjustable but in theaters and other buildings devoted to such productions, the stage is often a permanent feature.
Main stage or mainstage refers to the largest or most prestigious space of a theatre building and to the productions performed in that space. Mainstage theatre has been historically distinguished from smaller-scale studio theatre. It is usually performed in a proscenium theatre or on a thrust stage. Main stage is also used to describe the performance space with the largest audience capacity at a performing arts festival or other venues.
A theater, or playhouse, is a structure where theatrical works, performing arts, and musical concerts are presented. The theater building serves to define the performance and audience spaces. The facility usually is organized to provide support areas for performers, the technical crew and the audience members, as well as the stage where the performance takes place.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) is a non-profit, professional theater company located at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Its more than six hundred annual performances performed 48 weeks of the year include its critically acclaimed Shakespeare series, its World's Stage touring productions, and youth education and family oriented programming. The theater had garnered 77 Joseph Jefferson awards and three Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2008, it was the winner of the Regional Theatre Tony Award.
A catwalk is an elevated service platform from which many of the technical functions of a theater, such as lighting and sound, may be manipulated.
The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is a multi-venue, multi-purpose cultural centre in Mumbai, India, which aims to promote and preserve India's heritage of music, dance, theatre, film, literature and photography. It also presents new and innovative work in the performing arts field.
Theater drapes and stage curtains are large pieces of cloth that are designed to mask backstage areas of a theater from spectators. They are designed for a variety of specific purposes, moving in different ways and constructed from various fabrics. Many are made from black or other darkly colored, light-absorbing material. Theater drapes represent a portion of any production's soft goods, a category comprising any non-wardrobe, cloth-based element of the stage or scenery. Theater curtains are often pocketed at the bottom to hold weighty chain or to accept pipes to remove their fullness and stretch them tight.
Blumenthal Arts is a not-for-profit, multi-venue performing arts complex located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Opening in November 1992, Blumenthal owns and operates 4 theaters on 2 campuses in Uptown Charlotte.
Performing arts – are art forms where the participant engages in a physical performance using their body, voice, language, or use of specific equipment for entertainment purposes.
The Theatre Development Fund (TDF) is a not-for-profit performing arts service organization in New York City. Created in 1968 to help an ailing New York theatre industry, TDF has become one of the largest beneficents for the performance arts. The TDF heavily subsidizes Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-off-broadway theatre and dance productions that it deems to be of cultural value, with their most prominent program of this type being TKTS discount ticket booths. The organization also assists Broadway with complying with the ADA, provides educational outreach programs to secondary and college students, and rents out costumes to productions and other non-profits. It has received a Special Tony Award for its work.
The Naples Players (TNP) is a community theatre company located in Naples, Florida. The company was founded on January 19, 1953 in the Sugden Community Theatre at 701 5th Avenue South in downtown Naples. It has been named the "Best Live Theatre" in Southwest Florida (including professional theaters) fifteen times by the readers poll of The Naples Daily News.
Situated in the heart of Fort Collins, The Lincoln Center is the premier multi-venue performing and visual arts center in Northern Colorado. It was founded in 1978 through a community initiative called “Designing Tomorrow Today” that resulted in a voter-approved $2.2 million capital improvements tax, with the community raising an additional $300,000 to complete a new performing and visual arts center for Fort Collins.
There are different types of theatres, but they all have three major parts in common. Theatres are divided into two main sections, the house and the stage; there is also a backstage area in many theatres. The house is the seating area for guests watching a performance and the stage is where the actual performance is given. The backstage area is usually restricted to people who are producing or in the performance.
Theatre in the nineteenth century was noted for its changing philosophy, from the Romanticism and Neoclassicism that dominated Europe since the late 18th century, to Realism and Naturalism in the latter half of the 19th century, before it eventually gave way to the rise of Modernism in the 20th century. Scenery in theater at the time closely mirrored these changes and with the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution and technological advancement throughout the century, dramatically changed the aesthetics of the theater.
Theatre in the nineteenth century was noted for its changing philosophy from the Romanticism and Neoclassicism that dominated Europe since the late 18th century to Realism and Naturalism in the latter half of the 19th century before it eventually gave way to the rise of Modernism in the 20th century. Scenery in theater at the time closely mirrored these changes, and with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and technological advancement throughout the century, dramatically changed the aesthetics of the theater.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)It was from this space in Annie May Swift Hall that we dedicated a black box theater to the late Alvina Krause (above), the legendary Northwestern acting and interpretation teacher whose methods remain the basis of our acting curriculum. The Alvina Krause studio and an endowment in her name to support productions there were made possible by gifts in her honor, including a lead gift from Krause students Richard Benjamin (C60) and Paula Prentiss Benjamin (C59). Tony Award winner Frank Galati, another Krause student and professor emeritus of performance studies, spoke at the studio's dedication. he called it a fitting space because of its flexibility for a range of performance forms. "she encouraged the study of art, history, philosophy, music, religion, languages, astronomy and the sciences, literature and literary criticism," he said. "her own study was wide-ranging and eclectic."
Media related to Black box theater at Wikimedia Commons